Husky's New 3V Brewery

[Donske]

Probably even blows many micro brewery pilot rigs out of the water!

I'd say definitely, Husky's set up is a work of art.

 

[gava]

Just notice you have Stainless Tubing to run your cables? Now thats just showing off

Only thing that lets it down is the dual 2200watt kegking elements.. and THATS being picky..

makes my frame look like paper mache covered sh$t

-Gav

 

[booargy]

What you couldn't get a job in a brewery so you thought stuff you i'll build my own?
good stuff, I like very much (except for position of rims heater)
Have just sent off drawings for 160l jacketed cone bottom kettle with tangent inlet to be built. It will be good to see how your jacket chills.

 

[husky]

Jesus H. Christ!

Wow.

Looks AMAZING. Well done.

What did it set you back?

Too scared to add up. Spread out over a couple of years and lots of favours.

 

[husky]

Looks amazing mate. How will you clean all of the stainless tubing? Does it all detach for soaking?

Some is removable however I have hard piped the pipework in the skid to avoid any flexi lines which is a positive. Negative is it is harder to clean. Nothing a 2% caustic recirculation for 15 minutes will not solve. Also expecting to blow the lines out with compressed air after a clean to completely dry the pump head which is not free draining as the outlet if facing upwards.

 

[husky]

I`ll give you a $1,000.00 bucks for it!

You just want the frame?

 

[Doubleplugga]

And I thought I had some nice stainless bling! That rig will be awesome when fired up mate.

 

[husky]

Sweet jesus. You certainly don't do things by halves...

Where did you get the vessels made? It's a bit hard to tell from the pics, but it looks like the welds on the inside between the cylinder and the base are just tigged and cleaned? Any worries about there being crevices for bacteria and nasties to hide?

Never been one to do something by halves. The drawback is a lot of down time getting things right.
HLT and kettle are tig welded (as laid). These are sterile environments so not worried. One day will polish but its low priority.
Mash tun is polished and a really good finish. As bit reluctant to polish the kettle as with the jacket is will undergo a bit of stress when chilling so the more weld the better as far as im concerned. Will see how it goes, definitely looks better polished but its a good half day to do properly.
Nothing bad enough for bug growth.

 

[husky]

Just notice you have Stainless Tubing to run your cables? Now thats just showing off

Only thing that lets it down is the dual 2200watt kegking elements.. and THATS being picky..

makes my frame look like paper mache covered sh$t

-Gav

Yep, S/S conduits for power and control cables. Standard issue in any food manufacturing facility.
Keg king elements have served me well for the price. Only one has gone bang and I think I was sent a replacement. On the long term to do list to get some low density units but now they're only on water heating duties I'm not worried. They used to be used on my single vessel RIMS and performed well.

 

[Grainer]

Lol my brews may be $30 a bottle at the moment but Im guessing yours are at about $120 a longneck...given your rig !!! Its all for the love of it !!

 

[husky]

What you couldn't get a job in a brewery so you thought stuff you i'll build my own?
good stuff, I like very much (except for position of rims heater)
Have just sent off drawings for 160l jacketed cone bottom kettle with tangent inlet to be built. It will be good to see how your jacket chills.

More to the point I don't think I want to work in a brewery as It may become less fun. Maybe a small 500L brewery one day would be alright as long as you could only brew when you wanted to. I certainly enjoy the process more than the drinking these days.


What's your thoughts on the RIMS heater? When the rest of the system is finished I will be going HERMS. That might be a year off though.

Jacketed cone = expensive. I went a slight cone to assist in collecting whirl pool garbage and jacketed the straight wall only. If I were to jacket the cone I would go dimple plate. Starts to get expensive though. I am also interested to see how it performs. As long as It will cool within 30 mins or so I will be happy. Really once its below 70 or so I'm happy to transfer to fermenter and stick in the fridge.

 

[husky]

Lol my brews may be $30 a bottle at the moment but Im guessing yours are at about $120 a longneck...given your rig !!! Its all for the love of it !!

Funny, when I started the hobby I justified it to the missus by saying it would save us money. Brewing K&K could get a few slabs for a measly 15-20 bux. Definitely more expensive than just buying beer now but where's the fun in that. Maybe not though as every visit to Dan's to pick up a dozen or so randoms costs a good 60 bux.

 

[booargy]

What's your thoughts on the RIMS heater? When the rest of the system is finished I will be going HERMS. That might be a year off though.

I started with the heater in that position. then in the middle of the mash tun laying on its side. eventually laying on its side under the base. I found there is less chance of running dry but also I think with a bit of back pressure in the heater the temp is more stable. There is the relationship between flow/pressure and heating power. I can't explain it but from doing.
Here good sized one. although not food grade.


I have got a bit of a thing for heat exchangers and heat pumps at the moment.

I am the same as you with kettle design jacketed walls only. I was thinking some sort of baffle plate just tacked in the jacket but then again is it needed? also 4 inch tri-clamp in base as it will have legs so eventually 4inch butterfly above a drain. I plan on using the jacket to drop the initial temp down and heat cleaning water. then through plate chiller with chilled water to ferment tank.
seeing yours gave me a horn :wub: :wacko:

 

[husky]

I started with the heater in that position. then in the middle of the mash tun laying on its side. eventually laying on its side under the base. I found there is less chance of running dry but also I think with a bit of back pressure in the heater the temp is more stable. There is the relationship between flow/pressure and heating power. I can't explain it but from doing.
Here good sized one. although not food grade.

I have got a bit of a thing for heat exchangers and heat pumps at the moment.

I am the same as you with kettle design jacketed walls only. I was thinking some sort of baffle plate just tacked in the jacket but then again is it needed? also 4 inch tri-clamp in base as it will have legs so eventually 4inch butterfly above a drain. I plan on using the jacket to drop the initial temp down and heat cleaning water. then through plate chiller with chilled water to ferment tank.
seeing yours gave me a horn :wub: :wacko:

Depending on batch size the tip of the element should still be under liquid level in the MT to ensure its always flooded. I have electrically interlocked the RIMS element so that it cant be powered unless the pump is running. Still requires the flow plate to be connected correctly.

I put a baffle in half way up that forces the cooling liquid to travel around the entire circumference in the lower half, then up and around a full circumference again in the top half. Not sure if it is necessary however but does allow a longer contact time and should prevent the cooling medium short cutting through the jacket. You will also need a vertical divider for this to work. On my kettle I left a section un insulated so I have access to some bare wall for probes etc in future and provides this divider.

I like the 4" triclamp idea. I put one in the base of the MT for grain removal. I had one in the kettle however I ended up cutting it out when I wend for a gas burner. This will make it harder to drain as my kettle outlet is on the side so it doesn't suck up the trubb cone when whirlpooling.

 

[husky]

Well nearly 2 months on and not much has changed. Slowly working away on a basic electrical design and buying the odd bit of electrical kit every now and again is all I have been doing. I have an initial wiring sketch(see attached) that I have based on the electric brewery and modified to suit what I want.

A couple of things I need to sort out still:
1 - Do I want the alarms and buzzers etc? I have not used them in the past but they may be handy in the future. A lot more wiring though
2 - How do I get the power into the unit. Looks like I need around 32amps. I have a 15 amp supply maybe I need a second 15 amp off the meter box. Question is then how would I wire this in the control box? Other option that has been suggested is a 3 phase supply and pick up 240V of each of the phases. Anyone know how this might work?

I'm currently working with an electrical engineer so will have him review my dodgy diagram before I go any further.

Anyone here electrically minded able to critique the attached and comment on how it may be powered?

View attachment 20140505 - Control Box Wiring Diagram Layout.pdf

 

[OzPaleAle]

Not sure how you would go with a 3 phase supply, depends if its available on the street.
Also I believe you are meant to balance the phases so if you are say running one element off each phase but only one or two elements are running at a time however. I'm not 100% sure of the theory behind it so don't want to elaborate with incorrect info but worth investigating with your electrical engineer.

 

[djar007]

Sigh. Every time this thread pops up I am forced to relook at the pictures. And i cry A little.

 

[431neb]

Holy shit! First time I've seen this.

Talk about your classic - "Expensive way to make cheap beer". You're gonna have to outpace CUB to get your $/litre average down!!

Seriously awesome work. This is the best I've seen. I feel sorta empty inside now. Is that what jealousy is like?

Edit to add - Only 8 likes for the Original Post? Just the length and detail of that post deserves more likes. Give him some sugar FFS!

 

[bazfletch3]

Hey Husky

I'll preface my comments by saying that Im electronic (NOT electricaly) qualified; and its been a while since I waded through wiring diagrams on a daily basis. So please take my comments as food for thought only, and certainly not gospel

I ran through your wiring diagram and noticed a couple of things (first 2 are just being picky):

• The MLT PID is missing the 240V hot supply line
• The Volt meter would also need a 5Vdc supply (I would presume)
• The power keyswitch looks to me to be switching a voltage from the wrong side of the power relay; creating a vicious circle whereby you wont be able to power the system up! (someone feel free to chime in here and point out the obvious if Im missing something! ) You look to be sending the 24Vdc negative feed from the DC powersupply through the keyswitch to fire the 240V power relay - problem being the DC powersupply is itself powered from the output of the same 240V Power relay. My suggestion would be to change out the power relay for one with a 240V AC coil and loop the hot 240V input through the keyswitch and back to the coil as well (there is a wiring update on the Electric Brewery forum for 240V wiring which shows this).

In terms of your Power Supply question, you should have plenty of power coming into your house/switchboard, presuming you only have 1 switchboard (I think 80A is typical for a single phase feed to a house?....Any sparkies?????), you would just need a dedicated 32A socket and breaker wired from your switchboard to your brewery location. You would want a "single" feed into your control box, trying to use 2 separate 15A circuits is going to get messy (and dangerous).

Im currently working on a poor mans version of the Electric brewery (a staged version so I can get it through the ministry of finance) where I plan to do just that though (do as I say, not as I do!). But in my case Im building separate control boxes for each PID and element (3500W), which will run neatly of separate 15A powerpoints.

Good luck with the build; Im as envious as everyone else!

Cheers

Baz

 

[husky]

Still ticking along slowly with this build. It time consuming and expensive accumulating all the electrical components.
Progress made:
Purchased and plumbed up second march pump
Ordered gear tray for the back of the control panel
Ordered approx. 80% of the control panel components
Ordered a new laser cut panel door with all the holes etc required for the switches, lights and PIDs

Today after getting motivated seeing some of the other builds running currently I did a water run using my old control box. I wanted to see how all the transfers would operate. Heated some water in the HLT, transferred to the MT, recirculated using RIMS to various temperatures, transferred to kettle(no gas yet), chilled using the kettle cooling jacket.
All went very well, there are some minor changes that I will make in time but overall happy with how it ran. The cooling jacket was able to cool from 75 degrees down to 40 degrees in around 10 minutes. I was also whirlpooling while cooling and did a test with some food dye and bits of dirt to see that it accumulated in the centre. All seemed good but the ultimate test will be first brew day.

Panel wiring to come next, just need a few more of the nick nack little bits such as cable, crimp connectors and some screws to mount everything. Hopefully its only a few weeks before the next update!